I didn’t know it that, but Google reminded me with a nice little picture on the top of their search page.

I don’t think I could name too many painters in history. Sure, you have the famous painters like Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh. Or maybe you have the more regional painters like Terry Redlin, who has an art center in Watertown, S.D.

But for me, there is no other painter than Bob Ross.

His show, The Joy of Painting, was a staple for me. I used to watch hours of Bob Ross as he would paint the most elaborate scenes, using only the 30-minute time slot.

Of course, his paintings were marvelous. I don’t think he will go down as one of the greats like Picasso or Van Gogh, but he certainly made art more mainstream. I mean, who didn’t watch Bob Ross?

What made it even more fun was the fact he was a little quirky.

His hair was in an Afro-style mess. He was soft spoken and had a very soothing voice.

He had a palate of paints at his disposal and would often mix colors right there. It was always fun to watch as he would create a totally new color from scratch.

As a little kid, I always enjoyed watching him as he would clean his brushes. He would clean them and then just beat them back and forth across the leg of his easel to dry them off. He would always say, “Just beat the devil out of it.”

He had other fun sayings that will live forever.

“Maybe in our world there lives a happy little tree over there.”

“We don’t make mistakes, we just have happy accidents.”

Things were always happy with Bob Ross. There were no mistakes, he just went with the flow.

Today, he would have been 70. He died on July 4, 1995. The world has a little less joy without Bob Ross.

And I’ll end this blog with a quote Bob Ross used to end his own show.

“From all of us here I’d like to wish you happy painting…and God bless my friend.”